Will Boris Johnson stage a comeback?

Boris Johnson has not ruled out staging a political comeback according to supporters who argue that any successor will struggle to unite a divided Tory party.

Unnamed allies of the outgoing prime minister told The Times that he will not “fade into the background” after leaving Downing Street. Johnson will continue as a backbench MP until at least the next election, the insiders said.

“He’s not gone for the long term,” said one ally. “A third of the parliamentary party is loyal to him and he’s not standing down as an MP. He could have significant influence from the outside and then who knows what will happen.”

What next for Johnson?

“Assuming the prime minister makes it through the next few months until his successor takes over, here is his likely to-do list: 1. Make money. 2. Remake brand. 3. Make comeback,” said The Washington Post.

Freed from the restrictions limiting prime ministers from second jobs, Johnson is expected to make millions of pounds through newspaper articles, after-dinner speeches and books once he leaves office.

Despite claims in The Telegraph that his wife felt living in Downing Street was “like a prison”, “he may wish to return further down the line”, said the Daily Express.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, the former Labour shadow cabinet minister Mary Creagh said she thought the prime minister “has an eye on a comeback” and is waiting for one of the “next couple of dozen people, the wannabes” to give way to Labour.

He would likely find a willing supporter in the form of the Daily Mail, which said in its editorial the day after Johnson resigned: “The truth is, Mr Johnson stands head and shoulders above almost all his assassins. Compared with the mountains he has scaled, their combined achievements are little more than molehills.”

Dan Wootton said on GB News that Johnson could mount a comeback “when his party see sense”, while Mark Andrews in the Express and Star argued that “should the Conservatives lose the next election, it is easy to envisage party activists feeling nostalgic for his pithy slogans and witty, upbeat speeches.

“You only have to look across the Atlantic to see Donald Trump’s fightback to know that a similar comeback by BoJo is perfectly feasible,” he added.

Churchillian appeal

Tom Bower, author of Boris Johnson: The Gambler, agreed, saying Johnson “believes, in the long term, that there is a realistic chance of a political comeback, that in the end, there will be a Churchillian appeal to him as the only man who can save the party”, he said.

Johnson’s hero Winston Churchill was repeatedly sidelined and written off in his long parliamentary career only to return as prime minister and see Britain through to victory in the Second World War. He then returned to Downing Street in 1951 after a surprise win over Clement Attlee’s Labour government.

Much could depend, however, on the fate of the long-awaited Commons inquiry into whether Johnson misled Parliament.

Were the Commons Privileges Committee to find Johnson in contempt of Parliament when it reports back later this year, that could “put the prime minister’s position in doubt, by allowing MPs to vote on a suspension from parliament, which could itself trigger a recall petition in his Uxbridge constituency”, reported The Independent.

Even if Johnson did survive the inquiry and decide to stand at the next election he would not be guaranteed of winning his current seat, with The Guardian reporting that “plenty” of Uxbridge voters “were jubilant at his exit”.

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/boris-johnson/957326/will-boris-johnson-stage-a-comeback